Snow!!!!!

[knalawnsnow]

I know this is a lawn site but i know alot of you guys do plowing too. My problem is I have only done commercial snow plowing, which is based on a yearly contract and the few residential i did were on an hourly or per push rate. i have several residentiasl this year that want to be seasonal and i dont know how to bid them and actually make money. the drive is 150 ft long the 1st 35 is double car width the rest is single with a turn around area where the single and double meet. This is for plowing only.

[Steve]

Lawn care business tips

I think a lot of it has to do with how you want to go about billing them. Do you want to do it per push, or are you looking to offer a winter contract to cover all the snow you get?

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[B-2 Lawncare]

Originally Posted by knalawnsnow

I know this is a lawn site but i know alot of you guys do plowing too. My problem is I have only done commercial snow plowing, which is based on a yearly contract and the few residential i did were on an hourly or per push rate. i have several residentiasl this year that want to be seasonal and i dont know how to bid them and actually make money. the drive is 150 ft long the 1st 35 is double car width the rest is single with a turn around area where the single and double meet. This is for plowing only.

I have commercial and residential, would like to have all commercial. I have to charge per push with my residential clients. It is hard to make money to live on with a Per time push. We have to here because out west people have a hard time paying for such a service,and would never pay for snow removal when there is no snow. IF you are living in a metropolitan area you might be able to talk them in to a monthly service plan. I never count on the money coming from those accounts. The snow here is very light and unpredictable.
I would charge $45 to 50 for your drive way.

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

I think a lot of it has to do with how you want to go about billing them. Do you want to do it per push, or are you looking to offer a winter contract to cover all the snow you get?

Commercial where I live is where you make the serious bucks, it's by the season, standby rate, call in for multiple plows for a storm etc. We can have winters where you might plow half a dozen times then winters where you will be out dozens of times.

I find with residential the vast majority want a bid per plow and they want to call you if they want to be cleared out, in short it's a pain. I sub almost all our plowing as I feel it's just to hard on the trucks. The tractors we have however have plows, loaders and 72" blowers, we only blow paved properties.

I leave three tractors in three subdivisions where we have large property care contracts in the summer, this makes it simple for me in that I or one staff will drive to the site where the tractor is, do the plowing in the area and we do not have to transport as it's simply too dangerous due to weight and road conditions.

The average driveway is $45.00 for snow up to 8" and $60 for storms over, a double plow is the original quote plus 50%.

Plowing can be a real pain, you show up, do your job, get a call three hours later, the plow truck came by and left snow at the end of my driveway and they will not pay for you co some again.

[Steve]

Plowing can be a real pain, you show up, do your job, get a call three hours later, the plow truck came by and left snow at the end of my driveway and they will not pay for you co some again.

Did you ever find any good way to deal with this or was it just simply a downside to offering snowplowing?

[picframer]

Originally Posted by Steve

Did you ever find any good way to deal with this or was it just simply a downside to offering snowplowing?

It's just a downside and may be the clients we deal with, they simply do not want to have to do anything, going back costs money, not being there before the road trucks will cost you customers, not sure what the answer is. Most snow plow drivers are pretty good in that they will lift the wing leaving next to no snow at the end of the driveway then you get the guys that seem to push the entire bank into the driveway.